Radio: Drama Factory

With an outsize birthday cake and 200 winking candles, television's
biggest drama factory last week celebrated an occasion. NBC's Matinee
Theater, which makes an earnest try at bringing a full hour of live
theater to 5,000,000 daytime viewers every weekday (3 p.m., E.D.T.).
ground out its 200th production in nine monthsthe equivalent of more
than five seasons of once-a-week TV.

Matinee Theater uses more scripts, actors, directors and properties than
any other show on the air. Since its first show (J. P. Marquand's
Beginning Now), some 2,000 actors have slipped in and out of...